If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Thursday, 13 June 2013 00:00
BEIJING – Unlike millions of Muslims around the world, Uighur students returning for summer vacations in northwestern China are banned from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

"They are extracting guarantees from parents, promising that their children won't fast on Ramadan," Dilxat Raxit, Sweden-based spokesman for the exile World Uighur Congress (WUC), told Radio Free Asia on Thursday, June 13.

Chinese authorities have reportedly imposed restrictions on Uighur Muslim students returning for summer vacations in the northwestern region of Xinjiang ahead of Ramadan. Under the restrictions, Uighur students under 18 are banned from fasting during Ramadan or taking part in religious activities.

Students defying the restrictions are being reported to authorities for punishment. "They have also made groups of 10 households responsible for spying on each other, so that if a single child from one family fasts for Ramadan, or takes part in religious activities, then all 10 families will be fined,” Raxit said. "It's called a 10-household guarantee system.”

Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, is set to start next month. In Ramadan, adult Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset. The sick and those traveling are exempt from fasting especially if it poses health risks. Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to be closer to Allah through prayers, self-restraint and good deeds. It is customary for Muslims to spend part of the days during Ramadan studying the Noble Qur'an. Many men perform i`tikaf (spiritual retreat), spending the last 10 days of the month exclusively in the mosque.

Banned Ramadan

Religious officials have confirmed that Ramadan fasting is banned for Uighur Muslim students. "[Fasting] is not allowed," an official at a religious affairs bureau in Hotan's Yutian County told Radio Free Asia.

"The students and the teachers have to report to their schools every Friday, even during the vacation. "It's like regular lessons," he said, adding that the students would also be eating there.

Activists have also complained that Uighur students are being stripped off their mobile phones ahead of Ramadan.

"After the students get back to their hometowns, those with cell phones and computers must hand them in to the police for searching," said Raxit. "If they don't hand them over and are reported or caught by the authorities, then they will have to bear the consequences.”

The pre-Ramadan restrictions come ahead of the fourth anniversary of deadly riots in Xinjiang, which left nearly 200 people dead. Chinese authorities have convicted about 200 people, mostly Uighurs, over the riots and sentenced 26 of them to death.

Xinjiang has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of massive security crackdowns by Chinese authorities. Rights groups accuse Chinese authorities of religious repression against Uighur Muslims in the name of counter terrorism.
Muslims accuses the government of settling millions of ethnic Han in their territory with the ultimate goal of obliterating its identity and culture. Analysts say the policy of transferring Han Chinese to Xinjiang to consolidate Beijing's authority has increased the proportion of Han in the region from five percent in the 1940s to more than 40 percent now.

Beijing views the vast region of Xinjiang as an invaluable asset because of its crucial strategic location near Central Asia and its large oil and gas reserves.

Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region working as civil servants, students and teachers have been banned from fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday.

The state-run Bozhou Radio and TV university said on its website that it would “enforce the ban on party members, teachers, and young people from taking part in Ramadan activities,” according to Agence France-Presse.

“We remind everyone that they are not permitted to observe a Ramadan fast,” it added.

A weather bureau in Qaraqash county in western Xinjiang said on its website that “in accordance with instructions from higher authorities”, it “calls on all current and retired staff not to fast during Ramadan”.

A state office which manages the Tarim River basin posted pictures of its staff wearing traditional Uighur “doppa” caps tucking into a group meal on Saturday.

“Although the meal coincided with the Muslim festival of Ramadan, the cadres who took part expressed a positive attitude and will lead the non-fasting,” it said.

Meanwhile, the commercial affairs bureau of Turfan city said on its website Monday that “civil servants and students cannot take part in fasting and other religious activities.”

China has in the past said that restrictions on fasting are meant to ensure the health of government employees, according to AFP.

When contacted by Al Arabiya News head of the Islamic Chinese Relations Council Isaaq Yousef he didn’t know whether there was a ban but he said: “if there is one it would be low level state employees who could be seeking to stir trouble.”

“There is no interest for the state in banning anyone who wants to practice his religion. But if this happens, it is usually those state employees who are behind this.”

Isaaq cited the visit of President Xi Jinping to the region in April during which he visited a mosque and met with representatives of the Muslim community in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Xinjiang is a mainly Muslim region, home to the Uighur minority. For years China's ruling Communist party has restricted fasting in the region, which has seen sees regular and often deadly clashes between Uighurs and state security forces.

The month of Ramadan began this weekend. During the holy month, the faithful fast from dawn to dusk and strive to be more pious.

Home inspections

On Monday, Chinese authorities reportedly encouraged Uighurs to eat free meals on Monday, and inspected homes to check if the fast was being observed, Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, told AFP citing local sources.

“China taking these kind of coercive measures, restricting the faith of Uighurs, will create more conflict,” he said.

“We call on China to ensure religious freedom for Uighurs and stop political repression of Ramadan.”

A Chinese hospital’s instructions forcing Muslim nurses not to observe fasting during the holy month of Ramadan has sparked angry Muslim reactions, seeing it as stifling the religious minority’s rights.

“How is it wrong? These are our religious beliefs!” ” asked Yexil Esra in a comment on a Sina Weibo post by the county’s health department, New York Times reported.

“Who says that just because a person doesn’t eat lunch they lose their mental and physical ability to work normally. Have you fasted during Ramadan? You won’t die because of it.”

Muslims angry comments have sparked after health department’s Sina Weibo website said that the Chinese Medicine Hospital in Yining, also known as Ghulja, has asked its Muslim staff not to observe fasting Ramadan “in order not to affect normal work and life.”

Moreover, the Muslim staff was urged to sign their pledge of compliance in a “responsibility book.” The meeting was presided over by the hospital’s Communist Party secretary, Zhang Xiguang, the post said.

The controversial request was made just three weeks before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, due to begin on June 28.

Venting their anger in comments on the post, Muslims questioned the legality of such orders. Dama Mitu_9527 asked, “Yining Health Department, are you sure this isn’t unconstitutional? (angry face)” Another commenter called Happiness Comes and Goes said: “Ramadan is a person’s individual freedom of belief. It’s a private matter. If it does influence their work, then that’s their personal responsibility.”

These controversial orders are not new to Muslims in the Muslim-majority East Turkestan district, known as Xinjiang.

Chinese authorities have reportedly imposed restrictions on Uighur Muslim students returning for summer vacations in the northwestern region of Xinjiang ahead of Ramadan. Under the restrictions, Uighur students under 18 are banned from fasting during Ramadan or taking part in religious activities. Students defying the restrictions are being reported to authorities for punishment.

Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, is set to start next month. In Ramadan, adult Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset. The sick and those traveling are exempt from fasting especially if it poses health risks. Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to be closer to Allah through prayers, self-restraint and good deeds. It is customary for Muslims to spend part of the days during Ramadan studying the Noble Qur’an. Many men perform i`tikaf (spiritual retreat), spending the last 10 days of the month exclusively in the mosque.

The government's attempt to clamp down on religious expression has backfired among Uyghurs.

Umar Farooq | 05 Jul 2014

Kashgar, China -Chinese authorities have imposed restrictions on Uighur Muslims during the month of Ramadan, banning government employees and school children from fasting, in what rights groups say has become an annual attempt at systematically erasing the region's Islamic identity.

Chinese authorities have justified the ban on fasting by saying it is meant to protect the health of students, and restrictions on religious practices by government officials are meant to ensure the state does not support any particular faith.

Yet in Kashgar, in Xinjiang province, China's westernmost city, close to the border with Tajikstan and Kyrgyztan, Uighur Muslims say the restrictions have backfired. Not only have locals become more observant of Islamic practices, but many have found ways to flaunt Chinese laws restricting everything from who may attend the mosque, to which copies of the Quran are read.

"That is Mao ZeDong," said Omar, a taxi driver, pointing to a 24m-tall statue of the founder of the People's Republic of China, as he navigates his taxi through traffic across People's Square. "He brought all the Chinese here," he added, out of earshot of the soldiers lining up across the street.

A few minutes later, the soldiers pile into trucks and move to the city's commercial centre down the road, where police frisk shoppers at the entrance to a shopping mall. Across Kashgar, security forces have been deployed to thwart potential attacks by Uighur militants seeking to wrestle control of Xinjiang province from Beijing.

Home to some of China'slargest deposits of oil, natural gas, and coal, Xinjiang has a majority Muslim Uighur population - a Turkic ethnic group with a language and culture closer to Central Asia. Before the region was absorbed into the People's Republic of China in 1949, almost everyone here was Uighur, but the numbers have since declined, dropping to below half by the year 2000, as tens of millions of Han Chinese - the majority population of mainland China - were encouraged to settle here by the government.

That demographic shift, which accelerated in the 1990s as Beijing began to develop Xinjiang, combined with Chinese laws restricting Islamic practices by Uighurs and the 1997 execution of 30 Uighur separatists by Chinese authorities, triggered a wave of violence by militants that has left hundreds of people dead, mostly civilians.

Last month, a suicide bomber killed 39 people in the provincial capital of Urumqi, and police claimed to have killed 13 men who attempted to ram an explosives-laden vehicle into their office near Kashgar.

The deadly violence - including an attack by knife-wielding men at a train station in Kuming that killed 29 in March - has sparked a massive crackdown by Beijing, with authorities announcing the convictions of more than 400 people across Xinjiang. Last Wednesday, Kashgar authorities announced 113 people had been sentenced for crimes, including supporting terrorism and inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination.

"The government says every Uighur, if they have a beard or wear a hijab, they are a terrorist," said Abdul Majid, who owns a mobile phone shop near People's Square. He says the last time tensions were this high was in 2009, after 184 peopledied in clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi.

'All these problems started after September 11'

A world away from Kashgar's commercial centre lies the city's heart: a nearly 2,000-year-old Uighur quarter that is currently being rebuilt, literally brick by brick, by mostly Han Chinese migrant workers. Kashgar's ancient mosques are being restored and the homes in the old city re-imagined with hints of Central Asian architecture and with help from the Chinese government. It's part of a programme that authorities say is aimed at making the area earthquake-resistant.

But not everyone is happy about the renovations.

"If Allah wants to kill us, he will send an earthquake, and he will kill us," said Hajji Abdul Razzak, a silk merchant who has chosen not to have his home in the old city rebuilt. "A lot of people have left, and just put their houses out to rent."

Around the corner from Kashgar's 572-year-old Id Kah Mosque, a large notice board implores Uighurs to adopt modern attire. One half of the board is covered in pictures depicting traditional Uighurs, women in colourful dresses and flowing hair and clean-shaven men. The other half shows rows of men with beards and women in headscarves or face-covering veils, all with a red X over them.

"All these problems started after September 11th," said Abdul Razzak. "The Pakistan border [with China] was completely sealed, and when it opened a few years later, these Uighurs from Pakistan and Afghanistan came. They are doing all these [bombings], but we are being oppressed."

Restrictions ignored

Yet, Abdul Razzak and other Uighurs said the attempt to clamp down on religious expression has backfired in Kashgar, with more and more locals flaunting the restrictions.

Nearly every business in Kashgar's old city is closed during the hottest part of the afternoon when Al Jazeera visited this week during Ramadan.
In the evening, throngs of young women in headscarves or full face veils pass signs posted at Kashgar's main hospital reminding them veiled women cannot enter.

Along with government employees, children under the age of 18 are barred from attending mosques, yet dozens of men attending night prayers at one of Kashgar's medieval mosques have brought along their children. Toddlers line up next to the adults, imitating their movements during prayers.

"Sure, it's against the law to bring kids to the masjid [mosque], but we do it anyway," said Ghulam Abbas, a middle-aged Uighur man who makes a living selling fried fish on the main boulevard in the old city.

He added that, for centuries, parents sent their children to maktaps, part-time schools at the mosque, where they memorised the Quran - but this practise, along with most organised religious instruction, is now prohibited in Xinjiang.

Asked if Uighurs are forgetting how to recite the Quran as a result, Abbas called his eight-year-old son over and, after some coaxing, convinced him to recite a chapter from memory. "They want to cut our children off from Islam," Abbas said. "We are not allowed to teach them the Quran, but we do, at home - secretly."

It is not the only restriction that is being ignored by the Uighurs in Kashgar.

"The Chinese don't want us to have kids, but we just pay fines or bribe people," says Abdul Razzak, who has five children - three more than allowed by law. His three extra children, two sons and a daughter, have cost him around 60,000 yuan ($9,670) in fines. He said he is worried they will forget how to speak Uighur.

Other restrictions - like the ban on fasting for schoolchildren - are more difficult to get around. Chinese authorities require that school teachers, who are barred from fasting themselves, also discourage students.

"It depends on the teachers," said Mehmet, a high-school student in Kashgar. "[Some] bring water, bread, candy, put it in front of you, and you have to eat."

Meanwhile, certain styles of headscarf are still not acceptable to authorities. "The abaya was very popular here, starting four or five years ago," said Abdul Majid, a 20-something Uighur who imports women's clothes from Turkey. "But last year, police started bothering women, so now, I can't find anyone who wants to buy them."

Under Chinese law, only state-approved copies of Islamic literature like the Quran are allowed. "If they catch you with a different version, a different translation, or a book from Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, you go to jail," explained the owner of a small bookstore across the street from the Id Kah mosque, who asked not to be named.

Activists have accused Beijing of exaggerating the threat from Uighur separatists to justify a crackdown on the Uighurs' religious and cultural freedoms.

Increasing tensions

State-administered Bozhou Radio and TV University said on its website that the fasting ban applied to party members, teachers and young people.

"We remind everyone that they are not permitted to observe a Ramadan fast," it said.

Similarly a weather bureau in western Xinjiang was reported by the AFP news agency to have said on its website that the ban was "in accordance with instructions from higher authorities".

The BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing says that this is not the first time that China has restricted fasting in Xinjiang.

But our correspondent says that with Beijing blaming extremist Uighurs for growing violence, the ban is likely to be seen by many Muslims as an attack on their religion, further increasing tensions.

Among those imposing a ban are a commercial affairs department and a government hospital which got Muslim staff to sign a written pledge that they would not fast.

State-run newspapers have in addition been running editorials warning about the health dangers of fasting.

Many Uighurs say that the suppression of their cultural and religious freedoms is fuelling the unrest in the region and attacks elsewhere in China.

Last month 13 assailants were killed in an attack on a police station in the restive province.

Uighurs and Xinjiang

• Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
• They make up about 45% of the region's population; 40% are Han Chinese
• China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan
• Since then, there has been large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
• Uighurs fear erosion of traditional culture

China's western Xinjiang region has a long history of discord between China's authorities and the indigenous Uighur ethnic minority.

30 April 2014

Who are the Uighurs?

The Uighurs are Muslims. They regard themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.

The region's economy has for centuries revolved around agriculture and trade, with towns such as Kashgar thriving as hubs along the famous Silk Road.

In the early part of the 20th Century, the Uighurs briefly declared independence. The region was brought under the complete control of communist China in 1949.

Xinjiang is officially designated an autonomous region within China, like Tibet to its south.

What are their grievances?

Activists say central government policies have gradually curtailed the Uighurs' religious, commercial and cultural activities. Beijing is accused of intensifying a crackdown after street protests in Xinjiang in the 1990s, and again in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Over the past decade, many prominent Uighurs have been imprisoned or have sought asylum abroad after being accused of terrorism. Mass immigration of Han Chinese to Xinjiang had made Uighurs a minority in Xinjiang.

Beijing is accused of exaggerating the threat from Uighur separatists in order to justify repression in the region.

What is the view from Beijing?

China's central government says Uighur militants are waging a violent campaign for an independent state by plotting bombings, sabotage and civic unrest.

Since the 9/11 attacks in the US, China has increasingly portrayed its Uighur separatists as auxiliaries of al-Qaeda, saying they have received training in Afghanistan. Little evidence has been produced in support of these claims.

More than 20 Uighurs were captured by the US military after its invasion of Afghanistan. They were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for years without being charged with any offence and most have now been resettled elsewhere.

When was the last major outbreak of violence?

Almost 200 people died in ethnic riots in Urumqi, the administrative capital of Xinjiang, in July 2009. One of the sparks for the violence seems to have been the deaths of two Uighurs in clashes with Han Chinese at a factory thousands of miles away in southern China.

The authorities blame Xinjiang separatists based outside China for the unrest, and they singled out exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, saying she incited the violence. She denied any responsibility for the violence.

Xinjiang has received huge state investment in industrial and energy projects, and Beijing has been keen to highlight these as major steps forward. But many Uighurs complain that the Han are taking their jobs, and that their farmland has been confiscated for redevelopment.

The activities of local and foreign journalists are closely monitored by the state and there are few independent sources of news from the region.

(NEW YORK, NY, July 4, 2014) – The Islamic Circle of North America today asked the US State Department to condemn the ban on fasting during the month of Ramadan in Xinjiang, the northwest province of China.

“This is completely unacceptable,” said Naeem Baig, president of ICNA. “Fasting is a deeply personal observance that is integral to our faith.”

In its message to the State Department, ICNA today asked the Chinese government to immediately lift the unjust ban in which officials, civil servants, and students are forbidden to fast and visit mosques during the month to maintain “social stability” and prevent the promotion of religion.

ICNA reminds the China Committee on Religion and Peace of the assurance given to Baig at a Sino-US meeting on religion last year that fasting would not be banned again.

“Restricting the practice of religion for the Uighur is political repression,” said Baig. “Their religious freedom should be protected.”

ICNA urges all Americans who believe in freedom of religion to contact the State department and ask them to condemn this ban.

ICNA urges all Americans who believe in freedom of religion to email or call the State Department Public Communication Division at (202) 647-6575 and ask that the State Department publicly condemn this ban.

You may also call the Chinese Embassy at (202) 337-1956 and request the government to allow Muslims to observe Ramadan.

The Islamic Circle of North America is a leading American Muslim organization dedicated to the betterment of society through the application of Islamic values. Since 1968, ICNA has worked to build relations between communities by devoting itself to education, outreach, social services and relief efforts.

Dozens of Chinese crowd and torture a child in extremely brutal ways. As a result of his hands being stomped on the boy suffers multiple fractures on this hands/fingers. The boy cries and calls out for his father saying "Papa, Papa" in Turkmenistan language... To which a woman is heard saying "Kill him, stupid Muslim, cut him open."

The Chinese police and army are seen standing by watching the torture and not doing anything. They only get involved when the child passes out from being hit.

Uighur people in Karamay appear to be the target of restrictions as unrest simmers in mainly Muslim Xinjiang region

6 August 2014

A city in Chinas mainly Muslim Xinjiang region has banned people with large beards or Islamic clothing from travelling on public buses, state media said, prompting outrage from an overseas rights group.

Authorities in Karamay banned people wearing hijabs, niqabs, burqas or clothing with the Islamic star and crescent symbol from taking local buses, the Karamay Daily reported.

The ban also covered large beards, the paper said, adding: Those who do not co-operate with inspection teams will be handled by police.

Xinjiang, a resource-rich region that abuts central Asia, is the homeland of Chinas mostly Muslim Uighur minority and has been hit by a wave of clashes between locals and security forces that have killed hundreds in the past year.

China has blamed several deadly attacks on civilians outside the region in recent months on terrorists (locals) seeking independence for the region.

In July China banned students and government staff from Ramadan fasting, while officials have also tried to encourage locals in Xinjiang not to wear Islamic veils.

The Karamay restrictions are a typical discriminatory measure which add to an increasing confrontation between Uighurs and Beijing, Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress (WUC), told Agence France-Presse.

Chinese state media said on Sunday that nearly 100 people including 59 terrorists (locals) had been killed in an attack in Xinjiang the previous week.

The report came days after the government-appointed head of the largest mosque in China, in one of the regions oldest cities, Kashgar, was killed after leading morning prayers.

China announced a year-long terrorism (Muslim) crackdown following a deadly bombing attack in Xinjiangs capital, Urumqi, in May, and hundreds of people have been arrested on accusations of terrorism. Security on public transport has also been tightened.

The Karamay ban would apply for the duration of a sports competition ending on 20 August, the report said.

Authorities in Urumqi in July banned bus passengers from carrying a range of items including cigarette lighters and yogurt, state media said.

One can not say that the Muslims within China's Xinjiang region are in a state of paranoia when they claim they are being discriminated against due to their belief in Allah the almighty. In July China banned students and government staff from fasting in Ramadan, they were forced to sit in the canteen during their lunchtime in which they were then watched by wardens to ensure they broke their fast.

"The only reason they punished them was because they had iman in Allah, the Almighty, the All-Praiseworthy" (Quran 85:8)

While millions of Muslims worldwide prepare for the spiritual hajj to Makkah early next week, China’s Uighur Muslims are giving up their dream of the life-time journey under the security oppression of the home country.

“We cannot get a passport,” the father of Mehmet Ali, not his real name, told The Hindu newspaper.

“If we want to go on a government trip, we will have to pay 70,000 yuan ($11,400).

“Even we can afford it, it's difficult to get the approval.”

Ali, his father and two brothers have been dreaming for years of joining millions of Muslims for the spiritual life-time journey to Makkah.

But having the permit to travel to hajj has become even harder following recently imposed curbs on passport issuance for Uighurs.

The new restrictions were applied since 2008, ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

However, the ban did not include Xinjiang's Han residents who are still issued passports.

Without “connections”, Uighurs said, it was impossible to obtain a passport and travel to Makkah.

It was “impossible to travel if you don't work for the government, or know someone who does,” Ali’s father said.

According to official data, China has 20 million Muslims, most of them are concentrated in Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai regions and provinces.

Muslims from around the world pour into Makkah every year to perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.

Hajj consists of several rituals, which are meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform hajj at least once in a lifetime.

Nationwide, about 13,800 Chinese Muslim pilgrims are scheduled to take 41 chartered flights to Makkah for the annual Hajj this year.

No Travels

Worse still, Chinese authorities have also clamped down on “unofficial” travels to Makkah.

“The government does not want Uighurs to travel on their own,” Ali’s father said.

“So we can never go to Makkah.”

Putting more restrictions on the Muslim minority, the State Administration for Religious Affairs has earlier this year mandated new rules it said would improve “the management of Hajj work.”

The new rules say Uighurs, and other Chinese Muslims, were only allowed to travel to Makkah if they go on trips organized by the state-controlled Islamic Association of China (IAC).

With the IAC rarely accepted applications, the rules were imposed to ban Uighurs from illegally immigrating or joining extremist groups, A charge Uighurs reject.

In October last year, the Xinjiang government said it had “investigated, prosecuted and curbed” activities of “illegal organizations” that organized independent pilgrimages.

In Uighur neighborhoods in Urumqi and in Kashgar, the government has put up signs warning locals to avoid going on “illegal” pilgrimages.

In 2007, Chinese authorities initiated a campaign to restrict "unsanctioned pilgrimages" from Xinjiang, according to diplomatic cables from the United States Embassy in Beijing, leaked by whistleblower website Wikileaks.

A cable from December 19, 2007 quoted a Saudi diplomat as telling US officials that China had asked Saudi Arabia to bar issuance of Hajj permits to Chinese citizens outside of China.

Chinese officials had also said they would "definitely stop any would-be pilgrims seeking to depart China by means other than a government-organized tour."

"They would not allow the Hajj pilgrims to board the plane," the Saudi Consul in Beijing was quoted as telling US diplomats.

Xinjiang has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of massive security crackdowns by Chinese authorities.

Rights groups accuse Chinese authorities of religious repression against Uighur Muslims, a Turkish-speaking people of eight million, in Xinjiang in the name of counter terrorism.

Authorities in the capital of the mainly Muslim Uighur homeland of Xinjiang voted to ban the wearing of burqas in public, media said Thursday, as China confronts unrest with tough measures that critics have labelled discriminatory.

Hundreds have died in ethnic clashes across the restive far western region in recent months, with Beijing vowing to “strike hard” against violence.

The local legislature of Urumqi on Wednesday “considered and adopted ‘Regulations for the banning of wearing of burqas in public areas in Urumqi'”, the Sina web news portal said.

The measure will next go to the regional legislature to “examine and then to implement it”, the report added.

China has previously launched drives to discourage women from covering their faces, and security officials often log details of those wearing burqas, an Islamic garment that covers the eyes as well as the whole face and body.

A “Project Beauty” campaign in the predominantly Uighur city of Kashgar saw a publicity offensive encouraging women not to wear traditional Islamic clothing.

Authorities in another Xinjiang city, Karamay, in August banned people wearing hijabs, niqabs, burqas, or clothing with the Islamic star and crescent symbol from local buses.

Rights groups say that harsh police treatment of Uighurs and campaigns against some religious practices has stoked violence.

Beijing has blamed “separatists” from Xinjiang for a wave of deadly incidents in and beyond the region, which have been labelled “terrorism” by Beijing.

Several hundred people have died this year, and Xinjiang witnessed its bloodiest incident since 2009 when 37 civilians and 59 “terrorists” were killed in an attack on a police station and government offices in Shache county, also known as Yarkand, in July.

Five years ago, rioting involving Uighurs and members of China’s Han majority left around 200 people dead in Urumqi.

China defends its policies in Xinjiang, arguing that it has boosted economic development in the area and that it upholds minority and religious rights in a country with 56 recognised ethnic groups.

URUMQI – In another crackdown on religious freedoms, China has forced the imams of eastern Muslim majority districtof Xinjiang (Muslim province) to dance in the street, and swear to an oath that they will not teach religion to children as well telling them that prayer is harmful to the soul.

During the incident, reported by World Bulletin on Monday, February 9, Muslim imams were forced to brandish the slogan that "our income comes from the CKP not from Allah".

State Chinese news said the imams were gathering in a square in the name of civilization where they were forced to dance and chant out slogans in support of the state.

The slogans included statements glorifying the state over religion such as 'peace of the country gives peace to the soul’.

They also gave speeches telling youth to stay away from mosques, and that the prayer was harmful to their health, encouraging them to dance instead.

Female teachers were instructed to teach children to stay away from religious education and made to swear an oath that they will keep children away from religion.

Uighur Muslims are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

Xinjiang, which activists call East Turkestan, has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of massive security crackdowns by Chinese authorities.

Rights groups accuse Chinese authorities of religious repression against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang in the name of counter terrorism.

Last November, Xinjiang banned the practicing of religion in government buildings, as well as wearing clothes or logos associated with religious extremism.

In August, the northern Xinjiang city of Karamay prohibited young men with beards and women in burqas or hijabs from boarding public buses.

Earlier in July, China banned students and government staff from observing Ramadan fasting, as officials tried to encourage locals in Xinjiang not to wear Islamic veils.

The global Ummah is witness to the battle against Islam whether it's waged through occupation of our lands in a bid to eliminate the revival of the Shariah or whether it's through targeting Muslims living in non Muslim countries in a attempt to wipe away their adherence to their Aqeeda as it's seen as a threat to their values.

"The only reason they punished them was because they had iman in Allah, the Almighty, the All-Praiseworthy" (Quran 85:8)

BEIJING: A court in China’s mainly Muslim Xinjiang region has sentenced a man to six years in prison for “provoking trouble” and growing a beard, a practice discouraged by local authorities, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The court in the desert oasis city of Kashgar sentenced the 38-year-old Uighur to six years, while his wife was given a two-year sentence, according to the China Youth Daily.

The man “had started growing his beard in 2010″ while his wife “wore a veil hiding her face and a burqa”, the paper said.

The couple were found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a vague accusation regularly used in the Chinese judicial system.

For more than a year the authorities in Xinjiang have been campaigning against men growing beards – a practice officials associate with extremist ideas.A campaign dubbed “Project Beauty” also encourages women to leave their heads bare and abandon wearing the veil, a relatively widespread practice among the Uighurs – the main Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang.

The Kashgar couple had “received several warnings” before being charged, the newspaper reported, citing local officials.

“Since the beginning of the year, a certain number of people breaking the regulation on beards, veils and burqas have been prosecuted and sentenced,” officials in Kashgar were quoted as saying by the paper.

Kashgar authorities could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Rights groups believe Beijing’s repression of the Uighurs’ culture and religion has fanned tensions in Xinjiang, a resource-rich region that abuts central Asia.

Violence increased last year and at least 200 people were killed in a series of bombings and deadly clashes with security forces, blamed by Beijing on “separatists” and “religious extremists”.

In April last year authorities in Xinjiang’s Shaya county offered cash to informants to report on neighbours with excessive facial hair.

In August authorities in Karamay city banned people with large beards or Islamic clothing from traveling on public buses.

Shocked at the jail sentence rights group said in a statement that such a case would not happen in any other country.

“It is unacceptable and absurd. It exposes China’s hostile attitude and crisis of governance,” said spokesperson for the exile World Uyghur Congress.

He added that “If a Chinese person grows a beard, it is a personal fashion he is allowed to choose freely. If a Uighur grows a beard, he is a religious extremist.”

Shocked at the decision of the court, many took to Twitter to express their views on the jail sentence:

The rules also ban religious activities in schools and state that if parents cannot guide their children away from harmful extremist ways then they can apply to have their children sent to specialist schools to receive ‘rectification’.

In recent years, hundreds of people have died in unrest blamed by the Chinese government on Islamist militants.

In April 2014, officials in Xinjiang offered rewards of up to 50,000 yuan (£6,066) for those who tipped police off with information on separatist activities which included growing facial hair.

While in 2015, Uygur imams in Kashgar were forced to tell children that prayer was harmful for the soul and to declare that ‘our income comes from the Chinese Communist Party, not from Allah.’

Such Islamophobic stances are coming against a group of Muslims who are the miniority in the land and wish to hold firm to their orthodox beliefs. It becomes one of the growing factors towards radicals arising from within.

These communist pigs are afraid that the Uygurs will grow strong and become an independent nation like they once used to be. While there are thousands of churches being built in china and millions converting to Christianity, they are oppressing the Uygurs for the natural resources of that land. They are doing what the zionists pigs did, in that they are taking out Uygurs from their lands and replacing them with their Hans chinese to change the demographics of the land.

The Ghulja massacre was the culmination of the Ghulja protests of 1997, a series of demonstrations in the city of Ghulja in the Xinjiang autonomous region of China beginning in early February 1997.

The protests were sparked by the news of the execution of 30 Uyghur independence Muslims as well as the crackdown on attempts to revive elements of traditional Uyghur culture, including traditional gatherings known as meshrep.

On 5 February 1997, after two days of protests during which the protesters had marched shouting “God is great” and “independence for Xinjiang” and had reportedly been dispersed using clubs, water cannon, and tear gas the demonstrations were crushed by the People’s Liberation Army using gunfire.

The reports estimated the number killed at more than 100 and even as many as 167.

Aftermath:-

According to dissident sources, as many as 1,600 people were arrested on charges of intending to “split the motherland”, conducting criminal activity, fundamental religious activity, and counter-revolutionary activities following the crackdown. A report by Amnesty International documented as many as 190 executions carried out in the years immediately following the incident in Xinjiang, overwhelmingly against Uyghurs. Rebiya Kadeer, who witnessed the Ghulja Incident, went on to become leader of the World Uyghur Congress.

China has introduced new restrictions in the far western region of Xinjiang in what it describes as a campaign against Islamist extremism.

The measures include prohibiting "abnormally" long beards, the wearing of veils in public places and refusing to watch state television.

Xinjiang is the homeland of the Uighurs, a traditionally Muslim group who say they face discrimination.

Recent years have seen bloody clashes in the region.

The Chinese government blames the violence on Islamist militants and separatists.

But rights groups say the unrest is more a reaction to repressive policies, and argue that the new measures may end up pushing some Uighurs into extremism.

Though similar restrictions have already been in place in Xinjiang, they become legally sanctioned as of this weekend. Reuters news agency reports that the new laws also ban:

-Not allowing children to attend government schools
-Not abiding by family planning policies
-Deliberately damaging legal documents
-Marrying using only religious procedures

The rules also state that workers in public spaces, such as stations and airports, are now required to "dissuade" those who fully cover their bodies, including veiling their faces, from entering, and to report them to the police.

The restrictions were approved by Xinjiang lawmakers and published on the region's official news website.

Chinese authorities had previously imposed other measures, including restrictions on granting passports to Uighurs.

Uighurs and Xinjiang

-Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
-They make up about 45% of Xinjiang's population; 40% are Han Chinese
-China re-established control in 1949 after crushing the short-lived state of East Turkestan
-Since then, there has been large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
-Uighurs fear that their traditional culture will be eroded

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-39460538
Comments:This land was 100% Muslim and 0% Han Chinese before China invaded and occupied it. Since then China has been moving Han Chinese (non-Muslims) to the region and moving out the local Muslims in an attempt to take over the region fully without anyone left to oppose them.

List of banned baby names released amid ongoing crackdown on religion that includes law against veils and beards

4.2017

Many couples fret over choosing the perfect name for their newborn, but for Muslims in western China that decision has now become even more fraught: pick the wrong name and your child will be denied education and government benefits.

Officials in the western region of Xinjiang, home to roughly half of China’s 23 million Muslims, have released a list of banned baby names amid an ongoing crackdown on religion, according to a report by US-funded Radio Free Asia.

Names such as Islam, Quran, Saddam and Mecca, as well as references to the star and crescent moon symbol, are all unacceptable to the ruling Communist party and children with those names will be denied household registration, a crucial document that grants access to social services, healthcare and education.

A full list of names has not yet been published and it is unclear exactly what qualifies as a religious name.

China blames religious extremists for a slew of violent incidents in recent years that have left hundreds dead. It has launched a series of crackdowns in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur minority and one of the most militarised regions in the country.

Uighur rights groups complain of severe restrictions on religion and freedom of expression, and say the attacks are isolated incidents caused by local grievances, not part of a wider coordinated campaign. Young men are banned from growing beards in Xinjiang and women are forbidden from wearing face veils.

Rights groups were quick to condemn the name ban, which applies to dozens of names deemed by Communist party officials to carry religious overtones.

“This is just the latest in a slew of new regulations restricting religious freedom in the name of countering ‘religious extremism,’” Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “These policies are blatant violations of domestic and international protections on the rights to freedom of belief and expression.

“If the government is serious about bringing stability and harmony to the region as it claims, it should roll back – not double down on – repressive policies.”

Authorities in Xinjiang passed new legislation last month expanding a host of restrictions, including allowing staff at train stations and airports to deny entry to women wearing face veils and encouraging staff to report them to the police.

The new law also prohibits “abnormal beards” and “naming of children to exaggerate religious fervour”. Various cities in Xinjiang previously had rules banned women wear face veils and men with long beard from public transportation, but the new law applies to the entire region.

A Communist party village chief and ethnic Uighur was demoted last month for not having a “resolute political stance” after he refused to smoke in front of Muslim elders. The state-run Global Times newspaper quote another local official as saying cadres should push against religious convention to demonstrate “their commitment to secularisation”.

Chinese authorities in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang have detained a Uyghur woman for retweeting social media posts quoting the Quran and other religious content.

The 26-year-old member of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group was detained in Korla city on May 7 after forwarding posts that carried devotional Islamic messages, including quoting from Muslim scripture and praising Allah.
She is now being held under criminal detention on suspicion of promoting “extremist religious thought,” sources in the region told RFA.

An employee who answered the phone at the government-backed website Licheng Online Police, which received the initial “tip-off” about the woman’s posts on the popular chat service QQ, confirmed the reports of the woman’s detention.

Asked if the detainee was a young Uyghur woman, he replied: “Yes, that’s correct … We work against forbidden content that promotes separatism, or damages ethnic unity, or that is forbidden.”

“There is also extremist religious content that you’re not allow to repost, and she reposted it; she reposted that kind of thing many times,” he said, adding that quotations from the Quran or about Allah are “against the law.”

He said the severity of the woman’s punishment would depend on which laws she was judged to have broken.

“People who read this sort of extremist content can undergo personality changes over the long term, so if we don’t nip it in the bud, she could become unrecognizable,” he said.

But Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress group representing the Turkic-speaking ethnic group, said the woman could face serious charges, owing to recent government policy targeting every aspect of Uyghurs’ religious lives.
“I fear that this woman may be severely punished for incitement to extreme religious thinking in the current climate that is extremely repressive of [Islam],” Raxit told RFA.

Quran Ban

Meanwhile, an internet user based in Xinjiang said the Quran is banned from open sales in bookshops in the region.

“I have experienced something like this as well,” said the internet user, who has previously been accused of “propagating extremist religious content as text and images.”

“It was of people wearing Islamic dress, black from head to foot, and the star and crescent moon symbol of the Muslim faith,” the user said. “When I retweeted it, I got a message back saying that it had been deleted.”
“The Quran is banned from sale in public places, and it’s a very sensitive issue; it’s banned,” he said. “I have been to several bookshops … and asked to buy it, to read by myself, and they said it is currently under review.”
“The government is currently approving a new version of the Quran,” he said.

An employee who answered the phone at the Korla municipal police department hung up the phone when contacted by RFA on Monday.

An official who answered the phone at the municipal branch of China’s powerful Cyberspace Administration confirmed that any content promoting “separatist” views would be deleted.

“The internet police will delete any images it regards as sub-standard, and there are also appropriate punishments,” the official said. “The Quran is regarded as pretty separatist.”

“The other thing is people wearing beards and dressed entirely in black, which has a kind of separatist feel to it,” he said.

Asked if such content is believed by China to be linked to terrorism, the official declined to comment.

“I can’t read out all of our requirements from this document for you; it’s a classified document,” the employee said. “I can’t tell you all of it.”

‘Religious extremism’

China has vowed to crack down on what it calls religious extremism in Xinjiang, and regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.

While China blames Uyghur extremists for terrorist attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.

Last month, officials revealed a region-wide policy to ban dozens of baby names with religious meanings that are widely used by Muslims elsewhere in the world.
Islam, Quran, Mecca, Jihad, Imam, Saddam, Hajj, and Medina are among dozens of baby names banned under ruling Chinese Communist Party’s “Naming Rules For Ethnic Minorities,” they said.

Communist party has repeatedly tried to crack down on expressions of Muslim identity in the region
China is trying to prevent people from fasting during Ramadan in the predominantly Muslim province of Xinjiang.

A notice issued by the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Aksu (in Chinese, Akesu) prefecture’s Bay (Baicheng) county in the region said the move was to ensure “stability maintenance”. The bureau said it will “strengthen leadership” and “inspection” of the county during Ramadan.

It is forcing party activists to do marathon 24-hour shifts on guard in public buildings which make forgoing food and drink almost impossible.

Separately, in neighbouring Hotan (Hetian) county, students have been told they must gather on Fridays to “collectively study, watch red (communist) films, and conduct sports activities” to “enrich their social life during the summer vacation”.

Friday is Islam’s holy day and many customarily start the day at the mosque. In addition, many Muslims will have little energy to take part in sport while they are fasting.

A Han Chinese official in Hotan province refused to clarify whether the measures were explicitly designed to stop Uyghurs from fasting and praying during Ramadan when questioned by Radio Free Asia.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he said: “I cannot give you any details on this matter. You’d better inquire about it with the public security sectors.”

Another Han official working for the Zawa township in the province said public servants had been banned from fasting and if found out they would be “dealt with”.

The WUC notes that the restrictions on observing Ramadan do not seem to apply to the rest of China.

The authorities have tried to curtail observation of Ramadan, which runs from 26 May to 24 June this year, for several years but this time it coincides with the government’s increasingly draconian measures to crack down on religious expression.

China's leaders are spending $3.5 billion on Yinchuan to turn it into a "World Muslim City," decorated with a mosque-like "Golden Palace," Arabic street signs, and an elaborate light and dance show. A 900,000 square-foot terminal is also being added at the nearby airport to accommodate the hoped-for flocks of Arab tourists.

Since 1958, Yinchuan, a city 600 miles west of Beijing, has been the capital of the Ningxia region governed by China's Hui Muslims. It is part of the government's larger bid to improve relations with the Arab world by emphasizing shared Sino-Arab history and culture. China has come under criticism for its repressive treatment of Muslims, especially the Uighurs-Turkic-speaking Muslims who live in the country's Xinjian region.

Last year, Turkey criticised China's policies, prompting protesters in Istanbul to attack local Chinese establishments. In December, the Islamic State released a chant, in fluent Mandarin, calling on Muslims to "wake up" and overcome "a century of slavery."

It is in Beijing's interest to promote a more positive image of Chinese Islam. President Xi Jinping published a white paper in January detailing his ambitious plans to increase China's influence in the Middle East.

The Hui Muslims are treated more favourably than the Uighurs in the Chinese society. They, unlike Uighurs, speak Mandarin and are ethnically related to the Han majority. Their name is less likely to be affiliated in relation to terrorism or police crackdowns. By building the theme park in Yinchuan, Chinese leaders are trying to shift the focus to this officially approved version of Islam.

So far, the park has drawn few visitors. As Beijing continues to crack down on human rights and free expression, China's Muslim Disneyland comes off as another expensive, ill-conceived attempt to artificially beautify a defective civil society.

Xinjiang is not China’s region. It is a Muslim land that was invaded by China and is occupied by China. The natives (uighurs) have been forcibly moved to mainland China while Han Chinese are shipped to Xinjiang in an attempt to take over the region through population. All of this to steal the natural resources in the land that belongs to these Muslims. This is the Palestine of central Asia.

Chinese authorities enforcing new anti-Islam laws for prayers in mosques and Adhan across Hotan prefecture, EastTurkestan:

1. The following Surahs are only to be recited during prayers: Al-Fatiha and Surahs of Juz Amma (For example : Surahs of 94, 95, 97, 99, 103, 106, 107, 110 and 113).

2. All Imams and mosques must deliver the unified Jummah Khutbah already distributed across Hotan prefecture. Must be delivered in Arabic (not in Uyghur language).

3. As for the Adhan (call to prayer), the following words should be used:

"We all are the children of our great country" x2,
China is the greatest x2,
Come to prayer,
Which then followed by a call for people to wish for a good life for everybody and the prosperity of our great country, China."

4. As for the Takbeer, the following words should be used:

"We are the children of our country. China is great and we pray for the peace, harmony of our country, China.

5. Tasbeeh/Dhikr, the following words should be used:

"We all are very grateful to our great country China and our exceptional leader Xi Jinping (Chinese president)."

7. Dua (supplication in prayers) must be read as follows:

"We pray for the safety and stability of Hotan prefecture. We pray for the peace of every household. We pray for a long and healthy life for our elders and younger generations and also pray for a happy and prosperous life for everyone."

A Chinese official who allegedly declined to smoke in front of Muslims in Xinjiang has been demoted for taking an "unstable political stance," a state-run newspaper reported Tuesday.

Xinjiang, home to China's Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, restricts religious practices - such as growing beards, wearing headscarves, and fasting during Ramazan - that are seen as symbols of "Islamic extremism".

A notice from the Hotan district government over the weekend accused Jelil Matniyaz, a village-level secretary for the ruling Communist party in the far-western region, of being afraid to smoke before religious figures.

"His behavior of 'not daring' to smoke conforms with extreme religious thought in Xinjiang," a local official told the Global Times newspaper.

He added that a dutiful party member would choose to smoke in front of religious believers in order to demonstrate his or her commitment to secularism.

Matniyaz's failure to do so meant that instead of "leading the fight against extreme religious thought," he was "failing to confront the threat of extreme regional forces", the official said.

Matniyaz was given a "stern warning", stripped of his party secretary duties and downgraded from senior staff member to staff member.

Xinjiang has been racked for years by a series of violent attacks which Beijing blames on exiled Uighur separatist groups whom it says are aligned with foreign terrorist networks.

Rights groups have countered that unrest in the region is largely a response to repressive policies, and that tighter measures are counterproductive.

Uighurs, a traditionally Muslim group, complain of cultural and religious repression and discrimination.

China introduced new anti-extremism legislation in Xinjiang late March, including a provision that bans "abnormal" beards.

Uighurs are not Chinese and neither is their land part of China. They are Muslims of Turkic origin from what was East Turkistan that was invaded and occupied by China. They were not a minority either, but China has been forcibly moving them out of their native land while moving in Han Chinese in as an attempt to make them a minority in their own land, so China can freely steal their natural resources and prevent them from getting their land back. They are not terrorists or extremists, but it's a Chinese smearing campaign to wipe out Islam from that region.

Millions of China’s Uyghur Muslims yet again banned from observing Ramadan as restaurants forced to remain open

by Gulchehra Hoja - 2017-05-26

Authorities in northwest China are implementing a set of “stability maintenance” measures in Xinjiang during Ramadan, but sources say restaurants have been ordered to stay open throughout the Islamic holy month as part of the directive, suggesting efforts to undermine the Muslim tradition of fasting.

According to a recently issued notice entitled “2017 Work Conclusion on the Stability Maintenance of Xinjiang during the Ramadan Period,” the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Aksu (in Chinese, Akesu) prefecture’s Bay (Baicheng) county has adopted several measures to “ensure social peace and harmony” during the holy month observed from May 26 to June 24 this year.

The bureau, which regulates business and alcohol licenses for restaurants, will “strengthen leadership,” “control,” and “inspection” in the county, and “widen the scope of propaganda [to] focus on prevention,” said the notice, issued following a series of meetings held by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Communist Party Committee.

Additionally, the bureau plans to “strictly enforce leading cadres on duty, [have] cadres stand on 24-hour uninterrupted guard, ensure the rotation of guards, check the bags, [and] question and register all visitors.”

Temporary evening “security checkpoints” will be set up to “ensure that all vehicles, individuals, and suspicious things are inspected and recorded,” the notice said.

Separately, students in Hotan (Hetian) prefecture’s Qaraqash (Moyu) county will be gathered on Fridays to “collectively study, watch red [communist propaganda] films, and conduct sports activities” in a way to “enrich their social life during the summer vacation,” the notice said.

Fridays are customarily prayer days at mosques, while those who go without food between dawn and dusk during Ramadan rarely have the energy to take part in sports events, suggesting authorities may be trying to prevent the largely Muslim ethnic Uyghur inhabitants of Aksu and Hotan from observing the holy month according to Islamic tradition.

A Han Chinese official with the Political Law Committee of Hotan prefecture refused to answer a request by RFA’s Uyghur Service to clarify whether the measures were meant to stop Uyghurs from fasting and praying during Ramadan.

“I cannot give you any details on this matter,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “You’d better inquire about it with the public security sectors.”

But another Han Chinese official with the Zawa township government in Qaraqash told RFA that his office had been ordered by county officials to keep restaurants “open as usual … especially during the Ramadan period.”

“If anybody fails to comply with this order, they will be dealt with, and while I’m not sure of the specific punishment, [the restaurants] should be open no matter what,” said the official, who also asked not to be named.

“This order came from the county’s Political Law Committee a couple of days ago. Our leaders stressed the importance of this during a meeting we attended on this issue as well.”

According to the Zawa official, teachers, public servants and employees in the service sector are “not allowed to fast” during Ramadan.
“It is strictly prohibited and if they are found fasting during this period, they will be dealt with,” he said.

Annual directive

Uyghurs working at restaurants around the region confirmed to RFA that their businesses had been ordered to remain open during Ramadan, a directive that has also been issued in previous years in Xinjiang.

“Yes, we were ordered to keep our restaurants open,” said a Uyghur staff member at a restaurant in Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture’s Kashgar city.
“Every year it’s the same thing. Everybody has to stay open, even on the weekends.”

The Uyghur owner of a restaurant chain, who also spoke anonymously, said his business will stay open during Ramadan “for 12 hours every day.”

The order to keep restaurants open during Ramadan does not appear to have been extended to other Muslim minorities living in China.

An ethnic Hui Muslim restaurant owner in Ningxia Autonomous Region’s capital Yinchuan said he would be closing his business for Ramadan, much like he does every year.

“I have run this restaurant for 30 years and I have never received an order to keep it open during Ramadan,” he said.

“I will close my restaurant during Ramadan, though some restaurants will serve food before dawn and after sunset for Ramadan observers.”

In June last year, sources told RFA that several local government departments and middle or high schools in the Xinjiang region had posted notices online ordering restrictions on the Muslim duty to fast during Ramadan—particularly for “anyone drawing a salary from the state.”
Schoolchildren were barred from religious observance, while at least one Uyghur studying at Kashgar University in Kashgar prefecture said administrators at his school “regularly check each classroom and force Uyghur students to drink water or eat something in front of them.”

Officials in Hotan city also ordered restaurants and stores selling food and drink to remain open during fasting hours, with fines imposed on owners who failed to comply.

By Hena Zuberi – With the news of China forcing imams to dance in public and to make oaths to keep children away from religion in what is known as Xinjiang, where government officials warned that Muslims “During Ramadan do not engage in fasting, vigils or other religious activities,” effectively banning Ramadan, I wanted to share an interview that I did for the Muslim Link newspaper, with the Prime Minister in the East Turkistan Government in Exile, Anwar Yusuf Turani.

“We are an occupied territory. We know the plights of our Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine, Kashmir, but why doesn’t the Muslim world know about our struggle?” asks Uyghur diaspora leader from East Turkistan, Anwar Yusuf Turani. He is the founder and prime minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. Uyghurs are a Turkic people by race and language, Muslim by religion.

“There are 35 million of us,” he says, some in exile, others in the land of what is known to the world as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This number is hotly contested and rejected by the Chinese government’s official census.

Turani says most indigenous people of the region do not accept the name Xinjiang, meaning “new territory”, and prefer the name Sharqi Turkistan, but even using this name is seen as a threat to the sovereignty of China. He believes that China ends with the boundary of the Great Wall.

In 1949, when Mao Zedong declared the establishment of Communist rule in China, the map of China looked different than the one seen today. Tibet was free and north of Tibet, East Turkistan, the size of Alaska, existed as an independent nation.

In talking with Turani, I learned that the struggle for independence is not new as an East Turkistan Republic was set up in Kashgar in 1933 and again in Ghulja in the 1940s, brutally crushed both times. The republic was short-lived. Its entire leadership perished in a plane crash en route to Beijing for talks with Chinese officials. According to the Global Museum of Communism, devoid of leadership, the East Turkistan Republic was then “liberated” by Chinese Communist Party troops. In essence, the Communists, “marched in and have occupied the overwhelmingly Muslim country, renaming it Xinjiang.”

Living in Maoist Run Kashgar

Turani, born in 1962, remembers his neighborhood in Artush, 40 km from of the ancient city of Kashgar. Islam was systematically erased and every region was divided; the head of each jurisdiction was Chinese or pro Chinese, and Maoist ideology was implemented.

“I remember 3-4 years of living in a labor camp in the outskirts in Tijen, forced by the Chinese military, since my parents opposed the Chinese policies.” Turani’s parents were labeled counter revolutionaries—bourgeois—and his father was fired from his position as the head of the agricultural department.

22 years of persecution followed his family. “In our town [where we lived], there was a man named Qudrat, and his wife, Quresh Khan. They were very poor; the government lured them with rhetoric and land, gave them a confiscated house from a landowner, after executing him,” Turani relates a story of manipulation of the masses. Happy to receive land from the government, elderly Qudrat and his family were then forced to take care of ‘a hundred pigs’. Turani and his parents, and the Khans had never seen a pig before in their lives, he shudders while squeezing the memories out, of a whole population of the Muslim town being given ‘free’ piglets to raise.

“Most masajid [in our area] turned into propaganda centers, cinemas and movie theaters,” he recalls the horrific memories. “Our county became a labor camp,” he says, and many wealthy landowners were executed.

From his middle school days, Turani recalls the destruction of a historic Muslim cemetery in the city; later a military base was built on sacred grounds.

“My father had a Qur’an buried in our backyard I saw that with my eyes. I saw my father dig that Qur’an out after the death of Chairman Mao—my father used to read that Qur’an,” His eyes watered at the memory.

Dark Cloud of Death

“The occupation has been beyond brutal: open-air above-ground nuclear tests that killed hundreds of thousands, executed political prisoners, razed mosques, mass forced immigration of ethnic Chinese, deliberate economic discrimination in favor of said ethnic Chinese, Sinicization, etc.,” writes D.J. McGuire, elected Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia and a blogger who has been writing and lobbying against Communist China’s role in aiding terrorist states—a glaring omission from the prevailing discussions about the war against terror. The Lop Nor testing site, located in East Turkistan, was used for 46 individual nuclear detonations from 1964-1996.

These were the largest ongoing series of tests ever to be carried out in a populated area.

A conference was held in Brussels in The European Parliament in 2012 to examine the high rates of cancer, birth defects, and radiation-related illnesses in East Turkestan. Dr Enver Tohti, a Uyghur Surgeon and Independent Researcher, presented at the conference. He writes in ’46 Detonations Later: The Human Costs of the CCP´s Nuclear Programme’, that a recent study conducted by Japanese professor and physicist Jun Takada concluded that Chinese nuclear weapon tests caused more deaths than those of any other nation. Takada who studied radiation effects from tests conducted by the U.S., the former Soviet Union and France, has reported that the Chinese government surface nuclear tests caused up to 190,000 deaths in the surrounding areas from the explosion and a further million were killed by the radiation from the three-megaton explosions. This is 200 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, says Takada, who published his findings in a book, Chinese Nuclear Tests (Iryo*ka*gakusha, 2009). Since he was not allowed into the area, he visited neighbouring Kazakhstan using radiation levels measured there from 1995 to 2002. ‘He devised a computer model to estimate fallout patterns using Soviet rec*ords of detonation size and wind velocity,’ according to Scientific American, extrapolating the data for China.

Escape to America

Turani escaped from China and came to the United States as the first East Turkistani seeking asylum in the country. A Physics teacher, he lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Gulzighra (who is a registered nurse) and their four children. He looks Afghan or Pakistani, could pass for Middle Eastern, anything but Asiatic. Most Uyghurs look like him but many photographs published by newspapers in the Muslim world show ‘Chinese Muslims in Beijing’ and call them Uyghur, he says.

In September 2004, Turani and his fellow countrymen declared an East Turkistan Government in Exile inside the U.S. Congress. They have a constitution, a flag and a written language, and a coat of arms based on the two previous states. East Turkistan exiles include Uyghurs, Kyrgyzs, Uzbeks, and Tajiks. The People’s Republic of China opposed the formation of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. The fallout was great and the US government was quick to distance themselves away from the nascent government, saying that they do not recognize them. “The government in exile stated that its goal is freedom and democracy for its people, and an end to Communist China’s occupation. It is explicitly non-violent, has repeatedly condemned al Qaeda-sponsored acts of terrorism,” writes McGuire.

Turani, whose home is graced by a huge photograph of him embracing the Dalai Lama, says that China has used the global war on terror as an excuse to continue brutal oppression of the Uyghur Muslims. As noted by Amnesty International, many innocent Uyghur men and women including children have been massacred as recently as last Ramadan in Yarkant by the communist Chinese authorities ‘in the pretext of terrorists, extremists, and separatists.’

Dr. Haiyun Ma, a Hui Chinese professor of history in Maryland agrees, “China’s “Anti-Three (Evil) Forces” campaign (extremism, separatism, terrorism), begun roughly in the 1990s, has since extended to preventing the Uyghurs from gaining their independence. China — which looks at the U.S. waging a war in Afghanistan (also against terrorism and extremism) not so far away — has used the perceived threat of terrorism to justify their actions in Xinjiang.”

There has been development in the region, Turani concurs, but just like the West Bank settlements by and for Israelis, the development is only reserved for ethnic Hans or those who toe the Chinese government’s line.
Urumchi, the main city is filled by ethnic Chinese; in some areas there are only five percent Turkistani people left, especially in the downtown area.

Curating A Forgotten History

Turani asserts that the native Uyghur population is diminishing. There is no hard data to show that the population is decreasing, and in fact most census studies show that there has been a population growth. However, the percentage share of the Uyghur population is decreasing based on official and unofficial statistics. In 1964, it was 90 percent of the population, but through immigration from mainland China, the population is roughly 50-50. The Muslim population is controlled through birth control and forced abortion, which Muslims believe are divinely forbidden or haram. Turani says that if Muslim mothers are found pregnant with more than 2 children, they are taken to the hospital and even if they are 9 months pregnant their babies are systematically slaughtered in their bellies—physically, socially, psychologically and spiritually scarring the Muslim families. Many Uyghurs live in poverty, their children are not allowed to practice Islam. Those who work for the government are also not allowed to practice their faith. This Ramadan, Muslim students and civil servants were ordered to avoid taking part in fasting. Students who were found fasting were force fed during the day. Young boys and men are routinely taken away for ‘illegal’ Islamic classes.

Dr. Ma verifies the Tukistani leader’s claims; in an interview with Duke University’s public scholarship forum Islamic Commentary, he comments that “economically, the Uyghurs have little, if no access to the Chinese state economy, which includes state corporations and the quasi-military Xinjiang Development and Construction Corps (Its members are farmers during peacetime and soldiers during wartime). Unlike the Han-populated coastal regions of the southeast, the Uyghur economy in Xinjiang is almost dissociated from the Chinese economy. Adding to this, there was a large Han immigration [to the region], after the “liberation” of Xinjiang – following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Large military and militia personnel, their relatives, intellectuals, and youth were sent by the government to Xinjiang during various periods. More recently, Han farmers and businessmen came to Xinjiang. Since they typically have friendly relations with Xinjiang officials and military (either they are friends or relatives), Han farmers and businessmen coming to Xinjiang have been able to quickly dominate Xinjiang’s economic sectors — from mining to farming.”

In his office, Turani has a studio set up where he broadcasts speeches on his Youtube channels—social media and the internet is extremely controlled in China—intent on making sure that his people don’t forget their legacy and their history.

There is a collection of photos of Uyghur scholars, leaders.

A wall is dedicated to Muhammad Ali Tawfiq (Bey), the reformist educator who built 24 schools in Turani’s city. He was murdered by the Chinese along with his followers in 1937, including Turani’s uncles.

A devout Muslim with a melodious qiraa (recitation), Turani shows photographs he has curated of young men arrested for wearing the Turkish flag on their t-shirts, Islamic scholars in jail for teaching Qur’an to children, Uyghur women jailed for wearing the hijab.

“Why doesn’t the Muslim world talk about us?” he questions. He also says that many times Chinese Muslims are shown in media when referencing Uyghur people, further diluting their existence.

The Case of Professor Tohti

Recently an economics professor and Uyghur rights advocate Ilham Tohti was arrested and put on trial for ‘promoting’ separatism (he is now in prison for life). Turani takes exception to this claim—separatism is not the right word in this situation, as the Uyghurs are occupied, he says.

An accusation of separatism carries the death sentence. When Western newspapers claim ‘violent separatism’ in the region, Turani struggles to contain his displeasure. “The place is like a pressure cooker; no one is allowed to talk, cameras watch every move. Hundreds and thousands are missing or dead. And we are violent separatists?” he says. Violence stems from the repressive policies, not from radical ideology.

Many Uyghur scholars such as Abdulkarim Abduwali, alims (religious scholars), businessmen, and educated people have died under the regime and Tohti is yet another name on the list of people who have sacrificed their lives. Before his arrest Ilham Tohti, 44, was attacked by three secret policemen who screamed, “We’ll kill your whole family!” shares his friend, in an article about his arrest in The Guardian. Tohti was also a blogger and focused on the need to implement, “Xinjiang’s long-promised autonomy; the need to observe the rule of law and human rights; that all ethnic groups should share fairly in the fruits of China’s development; and that discrimination based on region, ethnicity or gender must be eliminated.” “Criticism and dissent is good for any government. What was Professor [Tohti] doing that he deserves to [be] jailed?” Turani asks. “Anyone who stands up for their human rights is labeled a counter-revolutionary,” he adds.

Independence vs Autonomy

Turani wants independence, other Uyghurs wants autonomy. Either way, he believes that a fair referendum could never take place in a region where two or more people are not allowed to convene without suspicion and harassment from the secret police; where jobs, passports, travel, even Jumuah khutbahs are all closely monitored by the Chinese government. People lose their pensions if they go on Hajj—if they are lucky enough to acquire a passport. Turani’s relatives have all been blackmarked and cannot travel outside the region, unless they bribe officials.

There has been some debate about the Uyghur identity, especially by Kristian Petersen, an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha who wrote a study in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs on Uyghur presence of the internet— who they originally were and how and where the name was applied—but Turani wants freedom for all the East Turkistani people, not just those who identify as the Uyghurs.

Turani says he has the support of a handful of congressmen after years of activism. From time to time, Turkey will challenge China on its oppressive policies, but he says most other Muslim nations, including neighboring Pakistan, have turned their back. He understands why his people’s struggle is not a priority for people of other faiths but to his Muslim brothers, Turani has a message, “Do you not feel our pain?”